Friday, March 23, 2018

Centenary of Russian Civil War May Create More Problems for Moscow than Did That of 1917

Paul
Goble

Staunton, March 23 – Many people
assume the Kremlin dodged a bullet by getting through last year, the centenary
of the two 1917 revolutions, without that historical event opening too many old
wounds and deepening the divides about that event which still exist within
Russian society.

But in doing so, they generally
forgot that Moscow must now cope with the centenary of the Russian Civil War,
an event that in many parts of the empire revealed even deeper splits than did
the revolutions themselves and on that lasted one year but three or far more
depending on which part of the country one is talking about.

Articles and books about the Russian
Civil War are beginning to appear, and yesterday the Fergana News Agency
published a discussion of one aspect of that conflict: the Basmachi movement in
Central Asia, the anti-Soviet and anti-Russian movement that challenged Russian
control of that region throughout the 1920s and in some places into the 1930s
and 1940s as well.

In an article entitled “One –
Basmach, Two – Basmach. In Kyrgyzstan, the Local Heroes of the Civil War are
Again Being Recalled,” Abdumomun Mamaraimov says that scholars in that republic
are beginning to prepare papers and host conferences on a group that in the
past Moscow invariably denounced as reactionary (fergananews.com/articles/9865).

According to Mamaraimov, “the Basmachi
in Kyrgyzstan have sparked a public discussion in which many are challenging
the still dominant Soviet view of the Basmachi.Far from everyone has a negative attitude about the Basmachi. “Some see
in the participants of the Basmachi movement patriots and defenders who gave
their lives for their native land.”

Some Basmachi fought for religious
reasons – many initially called themselves muhajidin – and some for ethnic
reasons – they fought for those of the region against the Russians. They came
from all classes of the local population, and they fought well, enjoying for
many years enormous local support. Had it been otherwise, they would have been
easily defeated.

The Basmachi came into existence in
response to Soviet excesses, including the brutal suppression of the Kokand
autonomy, the Fergana News journalist says; and their resistance forced the
Soviets to change their policies and ultimately offer the local people national
republics and a less repressive environment at least initially.

The Basmachi movement was very
complex as was the military situation it found itself in. One longtime student
of the movement, Almas Turdumamatov, says that people fought “from despair.
Each then had his own war,” something that is obscured by a class approach to
what happened.

Another scholar, Zukhra Altymyshova,
says that “the war of the local population against Soviet power was provoked by
the colonizing policy of Russia,” an assessment very much at odds with what
Moscow and many in Bishkek would prefer.More such judgments are likely to emerge in the coming months and years.

According to Kyrgyz historian Muratbek
Imankulov, “our goal is not to condemn oe site but to present an objective assessment
of the events and their participants. We must draw lessons from this in order
not to allow mistakes in the future.”That reasonable attitude may frighten Moscow more than almost any other.